WASHINGTON – Folks just wanna be friends with Veep Al Gore – but they’d rather party with Bubba.

A new Fox Poll shows 49 percent of voters think it would be more fun to hang out with the First Philanderer than with the starchy presidential wannabe. Only 19 percent think of fun when they think of Gore. But when the party’s over, they leave Bubba out in the cold.

The poll found 43 percent would rather have Gore as a friend than Clinton, who’s the pal pick of only 22 percent. And 49 percent would trust Gore as a business partner over Clinton (whose Whitewater real-estate venture led to a federal probe), named by 18 percent.

“We hope to make a lot of friends by the year 2000 – 50 percent plus 1,” quipped Gore spokesman Chris LeHane.

The poll of 901 registered voters nationwide also shows Texas Gov. George W. Bush still way out in front in the GOP presidential primary contest.